Game apparatus



M. GENSBURG GAME APPARATUS Feb. 26, 1935.

Filed May 7, 1934 INVENTOR.

W Meyer Gensbu-ry BY MM? HIS ATTORNEYS Patented Feb. 26, 1935 I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GAMEAPPA'RATUS Meyer Gensburg, Chicago, Ill. Application May 7, 1934, Serial No. 724,299

7' Claims. 01. 273-88) The present application is a continuation in Each group of ball runways includes a conpart of my co-pending application on an amusetinuous home run runway or alley 12 which ment game accessory filed May 7, 1934,.Serial No. opens at its upper end onto the upper portion of 727,032. 1 1 theplaying board 10 and at its lower end into 5 This invention relates to a gameapparatus. the transverse trough 11. Each group of run- 5 It is an object of this invention to providean ways also includes a three base hit runway improved game apparatus, which is relatively or alley 13 arranged adjacent the home run alsimple and inexpensive in construction and ef-- ley 12, a one base hit alley 14 arranged adjaficient in use, cent the three base hit alley l3 and a two base Another object of this invention is: to provide hit alley arranged adjacent the one base 10 an accessory for a game apparatus of the type hit alley 14 but on the opposite side of the latplayed with marbles or balls, and particularly for terfrom the three base hit alley 13, these alleys that type of game apparatuses known as baseor runways opening at their upper endsv out ball games, the present invention being particuupon the playing board 11 at the ,upper end 15 j'larly concerned with providing a novel device by thereof in a fan-shaped formation. The three 15 means of which the played balls may be trapped base hit alley 13 like. the home 'runf'alley 12 or stopped in positions corresponding to first, is continuous from its upper to its lower end second and third bases as they roll down a series when it opens into the trough '11, whereas the of parallel ball runways, and released by balls single hit and two base hit alleys merge to:

rolling down the adjacent runways and thus adgether between their ends (Fig. 1) and in turn 20 vanced successively from positions correspondthese two alleys merge into the three base hitf ing to first base, second base, third base, and alley 13 jac nt th l wer end of the latter. home. Arranged upon the playing surface 10 at pre- Other objects will appear hereinafter. selected intervals along the one base" hit, two The invention consists in the novel combinabase hit.; and three base hit alleys, 14, 15 25 tion and arrangement of parts to be-hereinafter and 13,-respectively, are swinging or pivotal ball described and claimed, stopping members 16, each of which includes The invention will be best understood by refer,- parallel arms 17 that are pivotally or swingingly ence to the accompanying drawing, showing the mounted at their upper ends upon upright sup- 3o: preferred form of construction and in which: porting parts 18; eachball stop 16 having a Fig. 1 is a perspective view, partly in section, transverse ball stopping and gate portion 19 at' I showing a preferred form of the invention asits lower end and adapted to engage a ball and sociated with a game apparatus, cabinet and hold the same from running down'that particular playing board of which only a fragment is shown; alley when the corresponding stop member 16 5 Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view on line is in lowered position wherein its arms 17 rest 22 in Fig. 1; and v q upon the siderails 2.0 which define that particular Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective alley.

view, partly in section, of one of the new devices. The arms 1'7 of the-"stop member 16 are bent A preferred form of the present invention is back uponthemselves to provide, and each stop 40 shown in the drawing and is shown in associamember 16 includes, two parallel lifting arms 40 tion with an inclined playing board 10 at the 21 (Fig. 3), each of which has at its lower end lower end of which is a transverse ball-receiving a right angularly extending lift portion 22.

runway or trough in which the balls are received These angled end and lift portions 22 extend from the runways OI alleys arranged upon the laterally over and above swinging or pivotal ballplaying board. releasing'or lift -rnembers 23 which are in the 45 Arranged upon the inclined playing board '10 form of flat sheets 23 that are pivotally or swingare groups of ball runways or alleys (Fig. 1) and ingly mounted at their upper ends upon upright associated ball stopping and releasing devices. upporting parts 24,

However. Since these groups of unways and as- Each of the ball releasing members23 is prefsociated ball stopping and eleasing d vices are erably in the form of a flat sheet of transparent duplicates of a Other, O One up o Such material such, for example, as celluloid, mica runways and associated devices will be described, or other fsuitable material, in the form of the it being understood that the following descripinvention shown, three of these lifts 23 arranged. tion is applicable to the other and correspondat intervals along the ball runways; the uppering group. 7 most ball-releasing member 23 spanning all four 55' runways, the middle ball-releasing member 23 spanning only the home run and three base hit alleys 12 and 13, respectively, and the lowermost ball-releasing member 23 spanning only the home run alley 12.

Operation When, for example, a ball enters the single hit alley 14, it engages the transverse portion 19 of the uppermost ball stop 16 and is held thereby against further movement down that alley until another ball is scored into one of the other three alleys whereupon the latter ball engages the corresponding ball-releasing member 23 which is thereby pivoted upwardly against the corresponding angled end portion 22wof the adjacent stop 16 and the latter is thus lifted upwardly allowing the ball stopped thereby in the alley 14 to advance or roll down the same into the two base hit alley 15, wherein it is stopped and held by the middle ball stop 16 arranged in the alley 15, the ball thus advanced being held by the middle stop. 16 until a ball enters either the home runf alley-l2 or the three base hit alley 13 and engages the middle ball-releasing member 23 to release the ball stopped by the middle stop 16. The ball thus released then advances into the three base hit alley 13, wherein it is stopped and held by the lowermost stop 16 until a ball enters the home run alley 12,

whereupon the lowermost ball-releasing member 23 is lifted and the ball held in the alley 13 by the lowermost stop 16 is thus allowed to run into the transverse trough 11 for return to the ball elevating and projecting devices (not shown).

It is tobe noted that the angled end or lift portions 22 of the ball stops 16 and the overlying portions of the ball-release members 23 (Fig. 3) terminate above or at a distance removed from the transverse stop portion 19 of the ball stops 16 so that when a ball is held or trapped by one of the stop portions 19 and another ball passes down one of the other rumways the ball release member 23 in the latter runway is lifted to release the ball stopped by the transverse portion 19 of the corresponding stop 16 before the ball passes from under the ballrelease member 23, thereby allowing the stopped ball to advance downwardly toward the trough 11 before the laterplayed and releasing ball passed from under the corresponding ball release member 23. In this manner the balls advance down the runways in the'order in which they are played onto the board 10 and'are kept in their proper sequence and a later playedball is prevented from catching up or getting ahead of an earlier played ball.

It is to be noted that the ball releasing member 23, being transparent, enables the player at all times to see the movement of the balls as they pass under the ball release member 23 to release the ball stopped and held by the stops 16, which adds to the interest of the player and the fascination of the game.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying myinvention into efiect, this is capable of variation and modification, without departing from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited .to the precised details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations andmodifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a game apparatus, the combination of: an inclined playing board having at least two substantially parallel inclined ball runways extending thereover; a pivotal ball-stopping member in one of said runways; and a pivotal ballreleasing member in the other of said runways; said ball-sto-pping member having a portion extending over and above said ball-releasing member and the latter terminating at a point disposed upwardly from the lower end and ball stopping portion of said step member, relative to the inclination of said board, so that said ball release member will engage and lift said ball-stopping member upwardly to release a ball stopped thereby when a ball passes along the said second-named runway and engages said ball release member and before the said releasing ball passes by the said ball-releasing member. i

2. In a game apparatus, the combination of:

stopping portion of said stopmember, relative to the inclination of said board, so that said ball release member willengage and lift said ball-stopping member upwardly to release a ball stopped thereby when a ball passes along the said second-named runway and engages said ball release member and before the said releasing ball passes by the said ball-releasing member; said ball release member havingthe form of. a sheet of transparent material to permit,-

balls passing thereunder to be seen by the player.

3. In a game apparatus, the combination of: a playing board having at least two substantially parallel inclined ball runways thereon; a ballstopping member pivotally mounted at its upper end above'one of said runways and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to stop a ball traveling therealong; a ball-releasing member pivotally mounted at its upper end above said playing board and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as 'to be engaged by and to be pivotally lifted by a ball passing along said last-mentioned runway; and means coacting with said ball-stopping member and with said ball-releasing member to lift the said ball-stopping member to release the ball stopped thereby as a ball passes under, but prior to the time that it emerges from below the said lower end portion of said ball-releasing member.

4. In a game apparatus, the combination of: a playing board having at least two substantially parallel inclined ball runways thereon; a ballstopping' member pivotally mounted at its upper end above one of said runways and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to stop a ball traveling therealong; a ball-releasing member pivotally mounted at its upper end above said playing board and projecting at its lower end 'into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to be pivotally lifted by a ball. passing along said last-mentioned runway; and

means coacting with said ball-stopping member and with said ball-releasing member to lift the said ball-stopping member to release the ball stopped thereby as a ball passes under, but prior to the time that it emerges from below the said lower end portion of said ball-releasing member; said ball-releasing member having the form of a sheet of transparent material so that the player may readily see a ball passing thereunder. 1

5. In a game apparatus, the combination of: a playing board having at least two substantially parallel inclined ball runways thereon; a ball-stopping member pivotally mounted at its upper end above one of said runways and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to stop a ball traveling therealong; a ball-releasing member pivotally mounted at its upper end above said playing board and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways soas to be engaged by and to be pivotally lifted by a ball passing along said last-mentioned runway; and means coacting with said ball-stopping member and with said ball-releasing member to lift the said ball-stopping member to release the ball stopped thereby as a ball passes under, but prior to the time that it emerges from below the said lower end portion of said ball-releasing member; said ball-releasing member having the form of a sheet of transparent material so that the player may readily see a ball passing thereunder; said means having the form of an arm projecting laterally from said ball-stopping member over and above said ball-releasing member so as to be engaged thereby upon upward movement of the latter.

6. In a game apparatus, the combination of: an inclined playing board having at least two substantially parallel inclined ball runways thereon; a ball-stopping member pivotally mounted at its upper end above' one of said runways and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to stop a ball traveling therealong; a ball-releasing member pivotally mounted at its upper end above said playing board and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to be pivotally lifted by a ball passing along the lastmentioned runway; and means coacting with said ball-stopping member and with said ballreleasing member to lift'the said ball-stopping member to release the ball stopped thereby as a ball passes under, but prior to the time that it emerges from below the said lower end portion of said ball-releasing member; said ballreleasing member having the form of a fiat sheet terminating at its lower end at a point disposed above the stopping portion of said ball-stopping member, relative to the direction of inclination of said runways, so that a ball held by said ball stopping member will be released therefrom for movement down the corresponding runway prior to the time that the releasing ball passes by or emerges from under the said ball-releasing member.

'7. In a game apparatus, the combination of: an inclined playing board having at least two substantially parallel inclined ball runways thereon; a ball-stopping member pivotally mounted at its upper end above one of said run- Ways and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to stop a ball traveling therealong; a ballreleasing member pivotally mounted at its upper end above said playing board and projecting at its lower end into the other of said runways so as to be engaged by and to be pivotally lifted by a ball passing allong the last-mentioned runway; and means coacting with said ball-stopping member and with said ball-releasing member to lift the said ball-stopping member to release the ball stopped thereby as a ball passes under, but prior to the time that it emerges from below the said lower end portionof said ball-releasing member; said ball-releasing member having the form of a flat sheet terminating at its lower end at a point disposed above the stopping portion of said ball-stopping member, relative to the direction of inclination of said runways, so that a ball held by said ballstopping member will be released therefrom for movement down the corresponding runway prior to the time that the releasing ball passes by or emerges from under the said ball-releasing member; said means having the form of an arm projecting laterally from said ball-stopping member above said sheet so as to be engaged by and pivotally lifted by the latter upon upward movement of the same.

MEYER GENSBURG. 

